Top 5 Reasons I’m Afraid of AI

Hello Friends, Family, and Fans;

Despite everyone and their grandmother praising AI and how it will change the world for good… It’s scaring me. Is it Adam’s Law? Am I a luddite? Or is everyone else just wrong?

5. What if it works?

The goal of most of the big AI companies is to reach Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), where AI will match or surpass humans. Now that’s kinda cool and all, but at the moment AI is using so much electricity and water that we can barely keep up. What happens when we get to AGI or sapience?

There’s a weird, almost religious, mantra in the tech-bro world that says once AI hits AGI, it’ll be able to fix those problems. Even if they’re right, we will have done immeasurable damage to the environment by that time.

4. Cognitive Decline

The over-reliance on technology often leads to loss of skills and loss of specializations. Few people know how to cut film for movies anymore. Not many encyclopedia salesmen running around. Most people my age don’t remember more than a few phone numbers. I’m not sure that any of that is all that sad.

However, several studies have shown a loss of critical thinking skills. I’m hoping this is a trend that will slow down as the use of AI becomes more expensive. It’s still scary to think that people are letting AI do their information gathering and critical thinking.

On a similar note, the absolute deluge of slop is a huge misinformation problem. Not only are bad actors creating division and misinformation, but AI is hallucinating and pushing bad info everywhere.

3. Lowered Expectations

This one really worries me. In the same way that a factory can churn out cheap products; AI can produce staggering amounts of content.

As a society, we’ve slowly become used to cheaper goods that don’t last long but are inexpensive. (In some cases shoddy products that are ridiculously expensive simply because of a brand name.)

AI can create video, images, and even novels, and it costs almost no energy for the person putting in the prompt. It’s easy to dismiss it as a hobbyist’s tool, but then Coca-Cola makes some low quality ads. Is the ad bad? No. Some of the visuals are amazing but there are so many errors that if it had been made by humans, it would have never been released.

Beyond ads, Disney has talked about self-prompted videos of their huge catalogue. Why would they pay humans to write or animate if they can just use AI?

Writing a book or story is hard, unless you use AI. Multiple magazines have had to shut down because they couldn’t go through all the submissions.

As a reader, I’m disgusted at the big publishers charging $20+ for an ebook. With the death of the mass market paperback, it’s really expensive to buy new books. If an AI prompter can make 5 books a week and charge $1, that will entice people, even if they are middling or poorly made.

2. Cost and Bubble

All the AI companies are gobbling up RAM, VRAM, and hard drives like college students at a buffet. It means that all tech is going to get more expensive, and in the short term we’re going to see a stagnation in products. Phones, computers, etc are going to have lower specs and higher prices.

If AI continues on this course, it’ll be 5 to 10 years before production will stabilize. If AI can’t produce AGI and the money dries up, the bubble bursting will bankrupt multiple companies and manufacturing will take a longer time to ramp up again.

Either way, the consumer will end up paying more for everything. Don’t forget that computers are used in everything, including farming and manufacturing. Increases in their costs will be reflected in ours.

1. Capitalism

LLM’s, which is what we’re calling AI, are a fabulous tool with great use cases in medicine, science, accessibility, data entry, etc. Unfortunately it’s being controlled by people who want nothing more than to make money.

From dynamic pricing to personalized misinformation, it’s all about money. The cost to the environment, art, copyright, human consciousness, life, or truth isn’t as important as their bank accounts. They will use it to squeeze every last penny out of the consumer.

My worry is how many jobs in the arts, customer service, and teaching will be replaced by poor imitations in the name of cost efficiency.


I hope that all this is unfounded and the technology will prove to be wondrous and make the world a better place.

What are your opinions?

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Fluffy Sugar-Free Icing

Hello Friends, Family, and Fans;

It’s birthday season in our family right now with Jen, her dad, and her mom all having birthdays this week.

A few years ago now I was trying to find a recipe for icing that my mother-in-law could eat. (She’s hypoglycemic and can’t have any extra sugar.) They had a recipe for a fluffy icing that was boxed puddling combined with boxed whipped cream. It worked really well but wasn’t sugar-free. I experimented and came up with this variation:

Fluffy Sugar-Free Icing

Makes enough icing for a 2-layer cake.

  • 1 box of sugar-free jell-o pudding
  • 3 cups of whipping cream
  • 1 TBSP of Splenda white baking sugar
  • 1/8th TSP of flavouring

Combine everything and whip for 3-4 minutes until it’s fluffy.


Hope this helps someone who hasn’t had a cake in a while.

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Fear Street: Prom Queen – JenEric Movie Review

How This Works – Read Other Reviews

Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2025 film Fear Street: Prom Queen.

Story

The story plays out like a mediocre R. L. Stine novel without the creative deaths or any form of tension. The twist was spoiled part way through and copied from Scream.

Score: 0

Characters

Most of the characters were cardboard cutouts of 80’s slasher movies or teen dramas. The main character was interesting and I did like the gender swap of the lovesick friend.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

The dialogue was decent if a little over the top. Some really cringy moments. It also felt like the villains had very little originality, and it would have been nice if someone had pointed that out.

Score: 0.5

Visuals and Music

The cinematography, gore, and overall camera work were great. Not too much shaky-cam. Some of the deaths were a little predictable and lacked the Stine flare.

The music was good, especially the soundtrack.

Score: 0.5

Fun

Even though I’m not a huge fan of the movie, it was fun in its predictability. It’s nostalgic, has a few Easter eggs for the other movies, and is an okay slasher.

Score: 1

Overall

A fun slasher with lots of nostalgia, both for Fear Street and the 80s. It’s not original and falls flat, but it’s a good time.

Final Score: 2.5 Stars out of 5

Faymous is now available

Hello Readers!

Faymous started as a wild dream that Jen had and then took ten years for us to turn into an actual novel.

If you like an adventure with music, love, and giant woman-eating shoes; Faymous is for you!

Faymous by Jen and Éric Desmarais
Cover art by Pinkpiggy93
eBook
Paperback

Blank Space Adventure (Serial Story) — Chapter 2

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12


Chapter 2: Experiencing Night and Day

“These things shouldn’t exist,” I said to the Wargs.

“The leaves are pink and the moss is orange,” T said with a hint of a smile. He had his makeshift spear pointed at one of the dog-like creatures.

I slowly reached down for a stick, rock, or twig to defend myself with when T made a loud bellowing noise and moved a little toward one of the Wargs. I swear it laughed at him.

The light changed suddenly. It went from daylight to night in a blink and suddenly the forest was alive with clicking and chirps. 

The wargs howled and ran away.

I turned to T and said, “Anything that scares those things is bad news for us.”

“It… It laughed at me,” T said before adding, “How rude.” He put his spear on his shoulder like a baseball player. “You’re right. Let’s find some shelter.”

There was a large hill or small mountain in the distance and we both decided to head that way, hoping that we wouldn’t encounter anything else.

It was surprisingly easy to see despite the sun having set. When I looked up at the moon, I was so shocked by the quantity of stars I stopped walking.

“Why did you stop?” T said and then followed my gaze. He swore in his language and I didn’t blame him. 

The stars should have been like pinpricks in a canopy; instead I was treated to glorious lights that almost merged together. I wished I could remember why this was making me feel so awestruck. Was this stranger than the night sky where I was from? 

“We should keep moving,” I said, feeling very small and very lost.

The hill turned out to be bigger, and farther than we expected. I glanced up every once in a while and noticed the stars were moving. 

“How long have we been walking?” asked T.

I shrugged and said, “I have no idea. Maybe an hour. Why? Do you need a break?”

He laughed and replied, “No, but either the sky’s broken or it’s already dawn.”

“How can the sky be broken?” I asked and shuddered. Something about that sentence scared me and I hated not knowing why.

The sun rose and we heard a scream. Both of us, without hesitation, ran towards the scream. That told me we were both the type of people who wanted to help, or needed to sate our curiosity. 

I was expecting to find someone being attacked but instead we found two people, in the same mustard yellow prison outfits, writhing on the ground. It was the same thing that had happened to us when we’d tried to access some sort of powers, which meant the two were going to be okay.

The first was a beautiful brunette with pale skin and a W on her shirt. She radiated power and my instincts told me that she was dangerous. I didn’t want to startle her even if she couldn’t access her power yet.

The second was a white man with silver hair and an A on his shirt. He felt powerful, but in a completely different way. As he lay on the ground, I saw tiny sparks of electricity shooting from his body.

When the two stopped flopping around, T demanded, “Who are you?”

“I have no clue and I really hate that,” said the woman. 

“I woke up with no memory,” said the man. “I started walking through the forest. I figured I could see better from the top of the mountain. Then I walked into her and we both fell to the ground.”

I offered the woman my hand and she gave me an annoyed glance before saying, “If me touching him caused us to fall to the ground, why would it be different for you?”

Shrugging, I said, “Can’t know if we don’t try.”

She took my hand and the same pain as when T and I had tried to use our powers wracked my body. This time I stayed standing. The pain wasn’t as overwhelming as the first time.

When I opened my eyes the woman was staring at me like I was a puzzle she could put together. “Did you know that it would be easier the second time?”

“No, but knowledge requires repetition.”

She stood up and the four of us sized each other up, trying to find some sort of answers. The woman was the first to speak. “I think A’s idea of going up the mountain for a better view is a good idea.”

“What, just because we all have memory loss and matching outfits, you think we should travel together?” T said.

The woman stood tall and said, “Yes. We’ll live longer together than apart.”

“Dude, she’s got a point,” added A as he dusted the dirt off his pants.

T waited for me and when I nodded, sighed and said, “Sure, why not.”

“Dude! You’re a suspicious little man,” A laughed and followed W, who’d already started walking up the mountain.

“Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean someone isn’t out to get you,” mumbled T as he joined the group. 

I followed behind and was hit with a sense of dread. Something, beyond the weird world and lack of memory, wasn’t right.

The feeling didn’t go away but also didn’t get any stronger. I wondered if I was an anxious person or if I had some sort of magical danger radar.

As we climbed, the light changed again, and W asked, “I feel like we’ve been climbing for hours. Why aren’t I hungry or thirsty?” 

It was a good question, but we didn’t get a chance to think about it before we heard the sound of wings. From above came a cloud of luminescent bats. They quickly got bigger and bigger until it was obvious that they were larger than we were and there were hundreds of them.

Read Chapter 3 (March 2026)


While you wait for the next chapter, check out the previous serial stories:

Our Tropes for “Faymous” – image

The tropes we use in Faymous

Every book utilizes tropes, even if it’s to subvert them, and Faymous is no exception. This book covers: roadtrip tropes, Young Adult, music & riddles, portal fantasy, Hidden magical world, Dual POV, No angst romance, and magical shenanigans.
Faymous by Jen and Éric Desmarais
Cover art by Pinkpiggy93
eBook
Paperback

 Zootopia 2 – JenEric Movie Review

How This Works – Read Other Reviews

Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2025 film Zootopia 2.

Story

The movie pulls from the buddy cop tropes but like the first, it infuses it with heart, empathy, and more than a dash of political commentary.

Score: 1

Characters

Making the main conflict between the main characters be fear of losing each other was not only sweet but a great continuation of their dynamic from the first movie.

The new characters fit well into the found family? pack? Fluffle!

Score: 1

Dialogue

There were a lot of good lines and callbacks to the first movie. The dry sarcasm and loving jibes never felt overdone.

Score: 1

Visuals and Music

I was amazed by the snow and water. Disney has come a long way with its digital animation. The framing and cinematography were great.

The music was almost as epic as the first one.

Score: 1

Fun

This felt like coming back to a great story and not like a disconnected sequel. I had a lot of fun and the rest of the family loved it.

I really appreciated the social commentary and jabs at modern politics.

Score: 1

Overall

All the charm of the first movie with a whole new adventure. This feels like a perfect continuation and was done with respect and empathy.

Final Score: 5 Stars out of 5*


*A 5 star review doesn’t mean the movie was perfect nor that it is perfect for everyone but it is a movie I believe is as close to perfect as possible.